United States Negotiating Secret Agreement to Store Passenger Data for 15 Years

Can you believe we had to find out about this from a UK-based Newspaper? The Guardian is reporting that it obtained a “restricted” draft of an agreement between Washington and Brussels that would allow the US to retain all passenger information about anyone who flies between the UK and the US for 15 years.

They will be keeping everything — Names, Address, Credit Card Numbers, Credit Information, Ethnic Origin, Political Opinions, and details of Health and Sex Life. Everything they can get their hands on. Absolutely amazing. Or maybe not…

This type of information is dangerous for governments to keep on-hand, and provides an incredibly tempting target for illegal activity from Identity-Theft through Terrorism.

The personal data of millions of passengers who fly between the US and Europe, including credit card details, phone numbers and home addresses, may be stored by the US department of homeland security for 15 years, according to a draft agreement between Washington and Brussels leaked to the Guardian.

The “restricted” draft, which emerged from negotiations between the US and EU, opens the way for passenger data provided to airlines on check-in to be analysed by US automated data-mining and profiling programmes in the name of fighting terrorism, crime and illegal migration. The Americans want to require airlines to supply passenger lists as near complete as possible 96 hours before takeoff, so names can be checked against terrorist and immigration watchlists.